Another Basquiat exhibition in New York

The hype surrounding the works of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died in 1988, in New York continues. After several exhibitions in various museums and galleries in the spring, the renowned Guggenheim Museum is now opening a show directly on Central Park about the artist who stirred up the New York gallery scene in the 80s with his graffiti-style paintings.

The focus of the exhibition is the painting “The Death of Michael Stewart” from 1983, known as “Defacement”, in which Basquiat thematizes the death of his Afro-American artist colleague Michael Stewart in police custody. Basquiat once painted the picture directly on the wall by artist Keith Haring. All around the Guggenheim Museum shows other works by Basquiat and other artists who also dealt with Stewart’s death. The show can be seen until November 6th.

Basquiat died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at the age of only 27 after a short but steep career. He is one of the posthumously most successful artists of the 20th century. His painting “Untitled” of a black skull on a blue background made headlines and was auctioned in May 2017 for the record sum of 110 million dollars (97 million euros). In his expressive pictures, Basquiat also took up the origins of his parents from Puerto Rico and Haiti with skeletal and cartoon-like skulls.

–

–